In the production of continuous glass filaments, the newly drawn filaments are coated with a liquid sizing, usually aqueous based, to coat and protect the individual filaments. Historically, strands of such filaments are helically wound into packages in a wet condition. The packages of strand are subsequently dried or cured in an oven to remove a suitable amount of the solvent or moisture from the sizing material. In addition to being expensive to operate, the use of such ovens to dry a complete package can degrade the filaments/strand in certain zones in the package.
Attempts have been made to dry the strand prior to being collected on the winder to assist in drying the package prior to heating the package in the aforementioned ovens, or even to obviate the need for the ovens. Such attempts have included the use of high frequency dielectric heating systems for drying the strand. The present invention provides a relatively simple, effective system for drying the advancing strand as it is being wound into a package.